Fixed materials

Fixed Materials are materials that may be used to supplement the properties of a material stream in a supply chain model.

Fixed materials are used to help making model setup easier. Instead of having to enter many properties for the same material originating in several different process units, you can create the material once as a fixed material, and use it whenever this material is produced, rather than customizing the stream many times.

Example: Isobutane is produced during hydrotreating, and it is common to model the amount of isobutane originating in a hydrotreater in the unit's Base Delta model.
Isobutane is also used as a gasoline blending component. To be used in gasoline blending, the material must have an associated octane number, vapor pressure, sulfur content and so on. As each hydrotreater is separate, the produced isobutane is also separate, so you would have to add all the gasoline blending properties to every isobutane stream in every hydrotreater.
Instead, isobutane can be defined as a fixed material, with all the necessary gasoline blending properties. When setting up the stream associations of the process model, the fixed material is used to override the model's isobutane output. Therefore it is not necessary to include the gasoline blending properties on each unit's isobutane output.
This also makes model maintenance easier. If you need to add a new gasoline blending property, this can be added once to the fixed material and will be carried to all streams, whereas if streams were modeled separately, the new property would have to be added to every process unit.

Fixed materials are identified by a Name and a chemical Formula, and optionally by a CAS Registry Number (CASRN), a unique numerical identifier assigned by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) to chemical substances.

To be able to edit a fixed material, you must have the right permissions. These are listed in the Permission column. If your permission is Read Only, you can view the fixed material and use it in your cases, but without modifying it. If your permission is Editable, you can also modify the fixed material.

Tip: Filter the list via the Filter menu and configure which columns are shown, and in what order, via the View menu. See the Grids topic for more information.

Manage fixed materials

To add a new fixed material:

1. Do either of the following:

   • Click Add Fixed Material in the Fixed Materials group of the Home ribbon tab.

   • Right click anywhere in the table and choose Add Fixed Material from the context menu.

2. In the Fixed Material Editor, enter a Name for the material and choose the Share where it will be published.

3. Enter a Formula for the material and CASRN number if needed.

4. Click the button to add a property to the fixed material. The Property Editor dialog opens.

5. Select the name of the required property from the Property menu. You can type the name of the property in the All text box to quickly jump to the desired property.

6. Enter the value for the property in the Value text box.

7. Select the unit of measure for the property value from the UoM menu.

8. Click OK to confirm your choices. The new property is added to the Properties table of the Fixed Material Editor.

9. Repeat steps 4 to 8 to add any other properties.

10. Click OK to confirm your changes. The new fixed material is added to the list.

To edit a fixed material (only if the fixed material Permission is set to Editable):

11. Select the fixed material you want to edit.

12. Do either of the following:

    • Click Edit Fixed Material in the Fixed Materials group of the Home ribbon tab.

    • Right click the selected material and select Edit Fixed Material from the context menu.

13. In the Fixed Material Editor, make any edits to the Name, Formula and CASRN. Change the Share if needed.

14. If needed, edit the list of properties in the following ways:

    • Click the button to add a property to the fixed material. For details, see the steps for adding a fixed material.

    • Click the button to edit a selected property. Make any changes in the Property Editor.

    • Click the button to remove the selected property. The property will be deleted from this fixed material only.

15. Click OK to confirm your changes.

Tip: It is also possible to edit fixed materials in the Properties tab. The table in this tab allows you to review and edit the property values for each fixed material. You can also add new properties to several different fixed materials in a single operation.

To create a copy of a fixed material:

16. Select the fixed material you want to copy.

17. Click Copy Fixed Material in the Fixed Materials group of the Home ribbon tab.

18. In the Copy Fixed Material dialog, make any edits to the name, description and target share of the new copy.

19. Click OK. The copy of the fixed material is added to the list.

To delete one or more fixed materials (only if the fixed material Permission is set to Editable):

20. Select the fixed materials you want to delete.

21. Do either of the following:

    • Click Delete Fixed Material in the Fixed Materials group of the Home ribbon tab.

    • Right click on the selected fixed materials and choose Delete Fixed Material from the context menu.

22. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog.

Properties

The Properties tab summarizes all the property values for all available fixed materials. You can edit property values for each fixed material in the grid.

By default, properties are shown as rows and fixed materials as columns. You can filter the list of properties and fixed materials by typing in the Properties and Fixed Materials fields at the top of the table, respectively.

To add a new property:

23. Either select Add Property from the Fixed Materials Properties group of the Home ribbon tab, or right-click on the grid and choose Add Property from the context menu. The Property Editor dialog box opens.

24. Select the required Property, enter a default Value and choose a UoM.

25. Click OK to close the Property Editor. The new property is added to the grid.

26. For each fixed material which requires this property, enter the appropriate value at the intersection between the fixed material column and the property row.